State of Palestine

"Sometimes, for a day or two we don't even have bread, nor flour to make bread. There's a store nearby that, when we are truly desperate, lets us take a bag of bread or something simple, on credit. I owe them a lot of money for the food I've brought from them, but I still can't pay them." (..) The World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) define food insecurity as people not having "adequate physical, social or economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs."

Two UN organizations on Thursday urged Israel to end its security measures imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than three years. Marking the World's Humanitarian Day, World Food Program (WFP) and the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a joint study that the Israeli measures have caused painful reality to Gaza population. "Since the end of 2008, the Israeli army had expanded the no-go zones," said the study, adding "22 Palestinians were killed because they approached these areas."

Israel on Thursday approved a plan to ease its blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip following weeks of international pressure, but provided few details on what new goods would be allowed in. (..) A Palestinian boy lies on sacks of flour donated by the European Union and the World Food Programme (WFP) and distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the village of Sanur, near the West Bank town of Jenin [photo caption].

Egyptian authorities prepared for the entry of food aid into Gaza through the former Auja commercial crossing on Monday, which includes 265 tons of biscuits for the World Food Program, a Palestinian Authority official said.

A six-ship flotilla bound for Gaza that was intercepted on Monday by Israeli marines was carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid. (..) Over three quarters of Gaza's population is food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity, relying heavily on aid subsidies, according to a report by the World Food Programme and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), published in November last year. The report said the population of Gaza was being sustained at "the most basic or minimum humanitarian standard."

The United Nations World Food Programme has released a socio-economic and food security atlas of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) which maps out Palestinians' access to food and nutrition. (..) As well as delivering food to the hungry, WFP develops state-of-the-art mapping tools like this Atlas to show exactly where the needs are,? said Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, WFP Country Director in the oPt.

Egyptian authorities allowed medical and food aid into the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, officials said. Amer Hadhud, a Palestinian Authority liaison official at the Al-Auja commercial crossing, told Ma'an that the World Food Programme transferred from Egypt 49 tons of biscuits on 12 trucks for the besieged coastal enclave.

Almost 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world suffer from stunted growth, according to a new U.N. report. But surprisingly, in the Middle East, wealthier countries have more of a problem than some poorer nations.
The Occupied Palestinian Territories, for example, have a stunting prevalence of 10 percent -- the lowest in the Middle East -- according to the study from UNICEF, the New York-based United Nations Children's Fund.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is to celebrate the launch of the 2009/2010 School Feeding program in the occupied Palestinian territory this Wednesday. WFP's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Daly Belgasmi, will attend a launch event organized at Al-Huda kindergarten and Asira Shamaleea Boys School in Nablus, West Bank, in the presence of the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Education and Higher Education, Her Excellency Lamis Al-Lami.

(..) The World Food Programme says “Gazans face an acute shortage of nutritious, locally-produced and affordable food.” The drastically reduced consumption of meat, oils, fats, fruits and dairy products can lead to anemia and stunted growth. Fifteen percent of Palestinian schoolchildren are “intellectually impaired” due to malnutrition, according to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.